''Simon and the Oaks'' ( sv, Simon och ekarna) is a Swedish

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

which was released to cinemas in Sweden on 9 December 2011, directed by Lisa Ohlin and starring

Bill Skarsgård Bill Istvan Günther Skarsgård (; born 9 August 1990) is a Swedish actor, producer, director, writer, voice actor, and model. He is best known for portraying Pennywise the Dancing Clown in the supernatural horror films '' It'' (2017) and '' It ...

. The film is based on the novel with the same name by

Marianne Fredriksson Marianne Fredriksson, née Persson (March 28, 1927 in Gothenburg – February 11, 2007 in Österskär) was a Swedish author who worked and lived in Roslagen and Stockholm. Before becoming a novelist, she was a journalist for various Swedish new ...

. The film was nominated in 13 categories at the 47th Guldbagge Awards, won two of the awards: Cecilia Nilsson for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for the role as Inga, and

Jan Josef Liefers Jan Josef Liefers (born 8 August 1964), is a German actor, producer, director and musician. Life Liefers was born in Dresden, the son of director Karlheinz Liefers and actress Brigitte Liefers-Wähner. After his apprenticeship he studied at th ...

for Best Actor in a Supporting Role as Ruben Lentov. Ohlin took over as director for the film, after the director Björn Runge in April 2009 announced that he would drop out of the production. In May 2009, the Swedish Film Institute (SFI) announced that Ohlin quits her job as film commissioner at the SFI to direct the film.

Plot

The film is about Simon (

), growing up in a working-class family on the outskirts of Gothenburg during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. He is very talented and always felt different and an outsider. Against his parents' approval, he seeks education in the arts, normally not attended by members of the working class at the time. There he meets Isaak (Karl Linnertorp), the son of a wealthy

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

bookseller who fled persecution in

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. The lives of the two boys and their families intertwine as the war rages in Europe. At the end of the war, it becomes clear to Simon that his life, family and his very identity will no longer be the same.

Cast

Accolades

''Simon and the Oaks'' was nominated for 13

Guldbagge Awards The Guldbagge Awards ( sv, Guldbaggen, en, Gold scarab) is an official and annual Swedish film awards ceremony honoring achievements in the Swedish film industry. Winners are awarded a statuette depicting a rose chafer, better known by the nam ...

, and won two.

References

External links

* * * {{DNFt, 74421 2010s coming-of-age drama films 2011 films Films based on Swedish novels Films directed by Lisa Ohlin Films set in the 1940s Films set in Gothenburg Swedish coming-of-age drama films Swedish World War II films 2011 drama films 2010s Swedish films